I thought I'd start a thread to allow those who have read the A Song of Ice and Fire books to have a spoiler-filled discussion without ruining anything for those who don't want to see any spoilers in the threads to discuss each episode. Those who haven't read the books, but who don't mind joining in a spoiler-filled discussion, are of course also welcome to join in, ask questions, etc, but be warned that this will be a thread with MAJOR SPOILERS, so read at your own peril.

The stories make me like the Targs a bit more. Up until I started reading them, the only Targ I really cared for was Maester Aemon.

Reading the short stories also make some of the references in ASOIAF make more sense.

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I love the Dunk and Egg tales. I'm actually re-reading the first one now. It's a fascinating look at a very different Westeros. Once Game of Thrones has finished its run, I wouldn't mind seeing an adaptation of Dunk and Egg. I don't know if the same format would work for them, though; maybe it'd be better if they filmed each story as a ninety-minute TV movie, like the old Sharpe films.

Question, as my memory of it is not clear... didn't Cersei order the attempt on Tyrion's life in the books? If so, this is another example of them making Jeoffrey nastier and her a wee bit nicer, as they did with the order to kill Robert's bastards.

I have one of the Dunk & Egg stories in a collection, I've got to get the other two so I can read them.

It's never explicitly said in the books who is responsible for the attempt on Tyrion. He assumes it was Cersei, but is still looking for concrete evidence when other events make the whole matter irrelevant. But the show flat-out saying at this point that it was Joffrey is certainly another case of making her nicer and him (even) nastier.

It's never explicitly said in the books who is responsible for the attempt on Tyrion. He assumes it was Cersei, but is still looking for concrete evidence when other events make the whole matter irrelevant. But the show flat-out saying at this point that it was Joffrey is certainly another case of making her nicer and him (even) nastier.

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The show doesn't flat-out say anything about that. Cersei doesn't answer and Tyrion just assumes that it must've been Joff.

^^^
Yeah, she communicates it to Tyrion without actually saying it out loud. We're not supposed to think she's being coy and allowing Tyrion to believe it was Joffrey, while it was actually her. We're clearly supposed to take it at face value that it was in fact Joffrey.

^^^ Precisely. I think in the books it was more implied that she was the one who tried to have him killed, just like she (IIRC) had Lancel try to poison King Robert's wine during his fatal last hunt. Her propensity for such acts is not without precedent.

In the books, sure. I don't think the show is interested in doing foreshadowing and character-motivation logic on that level. All that matters on TV is that Joffrey has a general motive (he hates Tyrion) and opportunity (Moore was a Kingsguard, sworn to follow the king's orders). I mean, technically Joffrey (who doesn't believe the rumors about his parentage) has less reason to order the bastards murdered than Cersei (who knows the rumors are true), but the show explicitly assigned that to him as well.

Oh, and Robert was given unusually potent wine, not wine that was poisoned.

But that makes much less sense than pinning it on Cersei. She was the one openly threatened by Tyrion. She's been paranoid about him ever since Maggy the Frog.
Also, Mandon Moore was her bodyguard.

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The TV show didn't show Mandon Moore as Cersei's bodyguard, did it? It just showed him as part of the Kingsguard. Joffrey had as much motive as Cersei to try to kill Tyrion given how mental Joffrey gets when he's disrespected, which Tyrion has done plenty of. We don't yet know whether the TV show will keep the Maggy the Frog aspect of the story.